Chapter 12 Valens
Valens
Ididn’t even consciously decide to let my wolf out. My instincts drove me down into the basement, where I knew my mate was in trouble in the time it took me to clear the top of the mansion. I found her falling and barely caught her before she slammed into the floor.
And while it physically pained me to leave her there, clearly in danger, I had to take out the threat so I could see where she was hurt.
My wolf took over from there. We charged the assassin, teeth bared and deadly intent filling us with every breath. The black-clad killer was well trained, and his footwork kept him a step ahead as we relentlessly pursued him.
When Galyna joined the fight, splitting his attention with her butterfly sword, he began to make mistakes.
My teeth sank into his thigh before I had to release him to dodge a downward slash of his sword.
Galyna’s blade lopped off the tip of his ear when he dodged a second too late.
Slowly, the fight wore on, and we backed him toward one of the storage rooms.
Seeing our plan at the last second, he decided to bolt toward the stairs, risking giving us his back as he ran hell-for-leather.
But four legs were faster than two, and I leapt as he reached the first step of the stairs, my much-larger wolf body taking him down with brutal efficiency.
Galyna ran to my side, but it was too late. My jaws had clamped around the back of his neck, and with a great, wrenching twist, I tore the assassin’s head from his body.
Crimson blood coated the floor, the walls, even my fur. But the second it was done, I dropped the head and ran back to Elodie’s side.
To my surprise, Fiona and Olivia were already there, kneeling beside her.
Fiona had shifted, the first time I’d seen her fully take her djinn form, and it was startling, my wolf wary. But not wary enough to keep us from shoving in and lying down beside Elodie.
Touch was comfort to wolves. And while there were a great many things I could fix, I had no medical training. Few of us besides our pack healers did, because a simple shift in either direction could fix most flesh wounds.
She smelled wrong. There was a taint to her sugary perfume, the normally decadent vanilla and hazelnut candy was sour, rancid, as if whatever they’d done to her was rotting her from the inside.
No, not just the inside. My wolf whined, nosing a festering cut on her arm. Poison in her bloodstream.
Panic filled my wolf. We couldn’t lose her, not before she was even ours.
But Olivia lifted her arm, closing her eyes as she pushed prickly green magic from her fingertips all around the wound. Her skin blanched at the effort, but Fiona was there to hold her up.
Olivia’s eyes fluttered open, voice strained as she spoke. “It’s a strong poison. Something based in manchineel, altered with magic. We need arrowroot, as much as you can get here quickly. I’m keeping the poison contained so it can’t stop her heart, but I can’t hold this level of power forever.”
I shot to my feet and ran, taking the stairs in great bounding wolf strides, not even glancing at Galyna or the headless body she’d pulled aside to search.
The healer’s cottage wasn’t far, but there could still be other attackers roaming the town. I didn’t give a fuck.
If Elodie’s life depended on getting the arrowroot, she would have it. Anyone who tried to stop my wolf would be shredded limb from limb.
I didn’t shift back when I reached the door, because someone inside swung it open.
Reka, our elderly Hungarian pack healer, waited just inside the door, expression hooded as she scanned the street to see if I’d been followed.
With shaking hands, she threw the door shut and bolted it behind me as I abruptly took skin again.
Eyes averted from my nudity, Reka turned toward her workbench with a stiff spine. She knew well that only dire need would have me abandon lockdown protocol. “What do you need?”
“Arrowroot. As much as you have.”
Age-worn hands worked efficiently as she put two unlabeled tubs of whitish powder into a plain sack and shoved it into my hands. “Go with the Goddess.”
“Thank you.” I managed the slightly garbled words as I shifted back, scooping up the sack between my teeth and putting my four legs to good use.
I was gone less than five minutes start to finish, but the situation had deteriorated in just that short amount of time, and my heart stuttered at how pale Elodie was.
She nearly matched the marble in the glow from the open panic room, and for one split second, I thought I was too late, the rise and fall of her chest was so shallow.
Fiona snatched the bag from my teeth, yanked the top off the first tub of arrowroot, and held it up for Olivia to use.
But she shook her head weakly, keeping her hands locked around the cut on Elodie’s forearm.
“Scoop up as much as you can and pack it all around the wound. Whatever’s left, we need to mix it in water and dribble it into her mouth.
We can’t risk choking her, but the faster we get it into her body, the better. ”
I shifted back, my wolf reluctant to relinquish control while our mate still wasn’t safe, but I bolted into the panic room, filled up a water cup, and jogged back with a straw clutched in my other fist. Fiona made quick work of packing arrowroot powder into the jagged wound in her forearm and dumped a sizable amount of arrowroot into the water.
I stirred it around quickly, then shoved it into her hands as I lifted Elodie from the floor enough to get the liquid down her throat.
She was so cold in my arms. So lifeless. Panic was a dagger to my throat, my breath coming in shallow pants as I willed her to hang on, to open her eyes, to stay with me.
For what felt like an eternity but was probably mere minutes, the three of us worked on her nonstop.
Olivia shook with the effort of the magic she held, eyes shut and teeth gritted as she poured every ounce of power into her friend, while I held Elodie up so Fiona could spoon-feed the milky arrowroot mixture into her mouth.
Bootsteps on the stairs told me people were coming, startling me out of my concentration, but my wolf was calm—the pack bond in my chest tugging toward the newcomers.
Pack, my wolf assured me, so I could keep my focus where it belonged—on our female.
Lucien dropped to his knees next to me, worry etched into his features.
“What happened?” He placed a hand on Olivia’s shoulder, probably funneling his power into her through their mate bond. The tremble in her hands lessened as the green bubble around Elodie’s arm flared brighter. I was infinitely grateful for the added support.
“Two Drakenia assassins,” Galyna said, kneeling at Elodie’s feet with a grim expression.
“She killed the first, but not before he struck her with a poisoned dagger. She had the second on the run before the poison took her down.” There was a deep regret in her words, and I held back my anger that she’d seen and known what was happening to Elodie and hadn’t intervened until it was almost too late.
Only the fact that Elodie wouldn’t want me to rip her head off kept me from snarling at her.
“You’re sure that’s all?” Lucien asked, shooting a wary glance toward the dim corners of the basement.
“I searched them both and cleared every room down here. We’re secure for now.” Galyna placed a hand on Elodie’s shin as if she could pour her own power into her, but the maiden’s partner bond didn’t run as deep as a mate bond, and all she could offer was moral support.
Lucien nodded, shoulders loosening a bit with the news.
“The town is cleared, then. There was a third man, but he took off into the woods after cutting the power. Samuel’s overseeing repairs right now, and I already put in a call for Kane and the others to come from their bunker point.
They’ll be here any minute, and Brielle—”
“I’m here!” the omega healer shouted down the basement stairs, racing at top speed across the basement and skidding on her knees to Elodie’s head. Without another word, she plastered a hand to her forehead and to her chest. Her eyes flooded with white light as she bowed her whole body over Elodie.
A still-water scent filled the air, and the hair on my arms stood on end as power charged the entire space.
In less than a minute, Elodie gasped, jolting in my grip as her eyes flew open. “Assassins!” she whisper-shouted, trying to surge up from the ground even as her muscles failed her.
“Whoa, there,” Fiona chided, shaking her head. “You’ve just been at death’s door. The assassins are dead, and you need to rest.”
Elodie sagged with relief, her gaze finding Galyna. “You finished them off?”
Galyna shook her head slowly. “The first one was already dead. Lover boy took the second’s head off.” She nodded my direction, and Elodie’s wide eyes shifted to my face.
“You lived.”
I snorted. In any other situation, I might have been offended that she thought a single attacker could take me out. But, given the circumstances, I was too damn grateful she was alive to insult me. “I lived.”
“You ripped his head off?”
“With pleasure.”
The slight pinking of her cheeks was a balm to my soul, the steadier way her chest rose and fell. Olivia and Brielle continued pouring magic into her for a while longer, until they deemed they’d done all they could.
But Brielle’s expression was torn when the white light faded from her eyes and the electric magic receded from the room.
“Elodie, when you’re feeling up to it, I need to speak with you privately.” She squeezed Elodie’s hand, the smile she wore forced.
Elodie’s whole body tensed, her eyebrows drawing together as she slowly sat up and turned to face Brielle. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, I promise. But… it’s information I think you’d appreciate receiving with less of a crowd.” The healer’s eyes flicked to mine for only a second, but the intent was clear.
Information she wanted to give my mate without me.
What the fuck?
Elodie chewed her bottom lip, her usual red lipstick not even smeared after her near-death experience. Guilty eyes flicked to mine. “Could you give us a few minutes? I’d rather know now. I hate waiting.”
There was nothing I could deny her. I nodded stiffly and let go of her hand. I hadn’t even realized I’d shifted to holding it as she no longer needed me to prop her up.
The rest of the males followed me up the stairwell to the main floor of the mansion, already discussing who would have sent two Drakenia assassins after us and how we could track down the untraceable.
But none of that mattered to me in this moment.
My mate was alive, but the experience of almost losing her had carved out the center of my chest with a rusty knife. And that was before we had mate marks or a bond. How the fuck would I deal with the coming war if she agreed to bond with me?